Busan Shark "Bukangi" Inspires Meme Coin... "Neukgu" Plunged 99% in the Past

Market Cap Surpasses $1 Million at Peak

"Neukgu" Coin Plunges 99% in Five Months

Caution Urged for Meme Coins Driven by Hype

The appearance of the shark "Bukangi" at the Bukhang Waterfront Park in Busan has sparked public interest, even leading to the creation of a meme coin inspired by it.

According to the virtual asset industry on the 28th, the meme coin issuance platform Pump.Fun launched a virtual asset named "Bukangi" on September 20, and it has been trading ever since.

On the 27th, citizens have been watching the swimming shark 'Bukangi' from early morning in the waters of the Chinsu Park waterway in Dong-gu, Busan. Photo by Yonhap News

As of 4 PM on this day, the coin was valued at $0.00126142, which is roughly 1 KRW. Its market capitalization has reached $1.17 million (approximately 1.6 billion won).

Meme coins are virtual assets based on memes (online viral content) or trending topics from social networking services (SNS). Their prices often fluctuate based on buzz and investor sentiment rather than actual technology or utility.

Pump.Fun, a company based in the British Virgin Islands, is a platform that allows anyone to create a meme coin without any development skills. With a large number of coins being created every day, incidents or animals that become popular in Korea are frequently used as subjects for coins almost immediately.

Previously, coins named after trending animals like "Lovebug" and "Fubao" have appeared in Korea. Since multiple coins can be created using the same keyword, it is often difficult to distinguish between issuers or trading targets by name alone.

In April, "Neukgu," a wolf that gained attention after escaping from Daejeon O-World, was also made into a meme coin. At the time, a coin named "Neukgu" was in circulation on overseas decentralized exchanges.

However, after the initial launch, as interest in Neukgu faded, the coin's price dropped significantly. According to CoinGecko, the coin reached $0.00084356 per coin on April 11, but as of this day, it is trading at around $0.0000065. This means its price has plunged by over 99% in about five months.

This example illustrates how meme coins can experience rapid price increases in response to specific events or trends, but as interest wanes, both trading volume and prices can decline sharply. If a coin has few market participants, it may also be difficult to sell at the desired time, highlighting the need for extreme caution when investing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.